Crucified....

men are afraid of any woman who makes poetry and dangerous portents
 unable to predict when, for what and for whom she will open her mouth
unable to stitch up her lips,
 they silence her sometimes in the womb,
sometimes through education and mostly through religion

she was an outcast who had the makings of a fiery orator
 who could some sane day run for parliament but
 how could the brahmin elite allow a woman
who speaks or writes amidst them,
 that would be blasphemy
so a nail was driven through her head and
 her coffin set adrift on a wailing river

 she was black and blood thirsty,
so even kali found herself shut in a shrine

 the others who never spoke up
were simply locked up
in homes with families they did not know
with a man they never saw before
expected to remain and breed like cattle
their existence a mere footnote
their language stolen from their throats
 their identities snatched to render them forever dependent.

 crucified to maintain an order
 which ensured they remained forever smothered.
 burdened with the ordained duty to maintain continuity
 they were strangled with a ring, a yellow thread
and sometimes simply stolen from distant lands
 from mothers who would never see their daughters,
sold to debauched desires they would be called whores.